--- title: "A Lost F-Zero Spinoff That Nintendo Canceled Is Coming Out This Year" date: "2026-01-27" modified: "2026-01-27" authors: - name: "Adam Ismail" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/adam-ismail" url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/a-lost-f-zero-spinoff-that-nintendo-canceled-is-coming-out-this-year" categories: - "Culture" - "News" - "Video Games" --- # A Lost F-Zero Spinoff That Nintendo Canceled Is Coming Out This Year ![A scan of a Nintendo Power preview of Zero Racers from 1996.]() *\Nintendo\* Nintendo is finally giving the Virtual Boy, its doomed, mid-'90s stereoscopic 3D console, its due. Virtual Boy games are landing for [Switch]() Online subscribers next month, and the company gave us a little peek at what to expect in the (admittedly small) library. One of the titles coming is called *Zero Racers*, and if you know your Virtual Boy or your *F-Zero* lore, it's mythical. *Zero Racers* is a futuristic [racing game]() sort of like *F-Zero*, in that you pilot anti-gravity ships. However, unlike *F-Zero*, there is free three-dimensional movement. You can fly up and down, as well as side to side, making it more akin to *AeroGauge* on the N64. Its courses are all in wireframe—this is the Virtual Boy, after all—but it contains many *F-Zero* hallmarks, like boosting and requiring the player to finish above a certain position each race to qualify for the next one. And, as far as we know, it was developed internally, by Nintendo itself. The game never actually released, though. It was [previewed multiple times]() by the media around the latter half of 1996, and it's been alleged that the game was effectively complete, but shelved because of the Virtual Boy's commercial failure. The system only lasted a year in North America, and was quietly discontinued right around the time *Zero Racers* started getting press coverage. So nobody outside the company has ever played it—though that'll change later this year. While the Switch's Virtual Boy experience launches February 17 with seven games, *Zero Racers* won't be among them. Instead, it and another unreleased Virtual Boy game, *D-Hopper*, are arriving later in 2026. https://youtu.be/nVvaCe4esCQ?si=SYgRv0CyVVBGZGJh&t=186 Nintendo gives us plenty to complain about, but they also do cool stuff like this that nobody else really does, honoring their history and delivering seemingly forgotten games that were finished but canceled for one reason or another. The company managed this with *Star Fox 2* on the SNES Mini years back, but *Star Fox 2* was widely known to exist, and playable ROMs of it were already out there, so people could still experience it in an unofficial capacity. *Zero Racers*, though, was a little-known product on Nintendo's worst-selling platform that never leaked to the public. There was no way to play it and few screenshots of it, outside of what was published in magazines 30 years ago. It will be interesting to see if there was a good game under all of that corporate drama. The Virtual Boy is a fascinating, if flawed, system. Rather than using a pair of color LCD screens, which would've been very expensive back in the '90s, it employs a 1x224-pixel LED strip that only lights up in shades of red, to save cost. Whatever that strip is showing travels through a magnifying glass, and then bounces off mirrors rotating left to right at an *incredibly* fast speed to draw an entire frame that appears to be 384 pixels wide. The video below demonstrates all of this with high-speed cameras, and it's mesmerizing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMd35q5PWFw&t It was infamous for giving people headaches and was recommended not to be used by young children, giving it a particularly cryptic aura for good old, family-friendly Nintendo. I've never played one, so I'm going to spring for that [stupidly overpriced Virtual Boy stand]() that Nintendo is selling, to try and approximate the experience. It's at least cheaper than snagging a real unit, and has the advantage of not being an absolute PITA to repair because of wonky mirrors. *Got a tip? Reach out to tips@thedrive.com* ## Author Adam is a Senior Editor at The Drive, concentrating on curating and developing the site's slate of daily journalism, from initial pitch to final copy edit. When he's not at his desk researching leads and working with writers, he's testing vehicles or reviewing racing games, new and old. He joined The Drive in 2023, following seven years of covering consumer technology and cars. A car lover and gamer since his earliest memories, Adam came to know the automotive world through video games. First it was Daytona USA, Sega Rally, and Ridge Racer; then came Need For Speed, which inspired an encyclopedic knowledge of '90s supercars, and, of course, Gran Turismo. If not for them, he'd assuredly be doing something else right now. Adam is based in the suburbs outside Philly, where there are ample roads for his hot hatch to stretch its legs. In his car, he's probably listening to indie rock, drum and bass, or Yankees baseball. ### Author social links [Bluesky]() [Instagram]() [LinkedIn]()